June 5, 2004: Gone, But Not Really Departed

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

The November 5, 1994 release of his "Alzheimer's Letter" marked his withdrawal from public life, years before he would leave the physical world.

His followers see to it that he never goes away. His wax effigy watching over the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference may seem creepy, but that's the least of it.

Mark Hertsgaard's 1989 On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency makes it clear that Reagan could have been sold only as a personality—because the public hated his policies. And Hertsgaard's interviews with former White House staffers show that a sales job was exactly what they were about.

The job reached a renewed high in June 2004. The operatives couldn't know when the sad day would come, but whenever it did, they would have their grand plan ready. After all, they had worked on it ever since leaving the White House in 1989.

When Reagan died on June 5, 2004, the grieving PR men responded accordingly—as did the media.

From June 2004, here's Eric Boehlert, on how "The 'liberal media's' unprecedented 24/7 gushing over a controversial and divisive president caps a quarter-century of fawning"—

By midweek, a few news organizations, including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Washington Post, had at least addressed some of the more controversial aspects of Reagan's public life. But for the most part, the reports, particularly on the 24-hour news channels, remained uniformly worshipful, as the elaborate funeral cortege, orchestrated after years of planning by Reagan's old image-makers, marched through the entire week, accompanied by rhetorical flourishes.

"Ronald Reagan is a sort of masterpiece of American magic -- apparently one of the simplest, most uncomplicated creatures alive, and yet a character of rich meanings, of complexities that connect him with the myths and powers of his country in an unprecedented way," trumpeted Time magazine. "He is a Prospero of American memories, a magician who carries a bright, ideal America like a holograph in his mind and projects its image in the air."

What's telling is that that passage wasn't published this week. It comes from a cover story dated July 7, 1986, written by Lance Morrow. The 3,700-word essay serves as a critical reminder that, despite conservative charges of its liberal bias, the press has been fawning over Reagan for years. And this week's uncritical treatment of the 40th president is a natural culmination of what has been going on for the past quarter of a century.

The funeralpalooza coverage was just what the planners knew they could count on. Boehlert notes that

In a sense, this week has been the 1980s redux, with the Reagan communication team again providing the press, and particularly TV, with priceless pictures and sentimental narrative lines while appreciative producers and reporters neglect to acknowledge the wholesale media manipulation that is going on. There's been little or no discussion, for example, of the long planning for this funeral by Reagan's old political handlers. It's morning again in America -- on a feedback loop.

The event was perfect for pre-empting any Democratic campaign effort that week. Months before Bush Jr's re-installation, the media was handed tremendous opportunity for reminding the country of how great Republicans are.

Reagan should never be forgotten. The history of his rise to power and two presidential terms—and knowledge of the funders and PR operation behind it all—are full of lessons.

But we reside in Gore Vidal's "United States of Amnesia." On the one hand, the public is fed a bit of carefully crafted "history"; on the other, the word itself is used to silence ["it's history: get over it"].

The financiers of Reagan's agenda have plenty of cash to underwrite their phony presentation of the past—and the most intimate of connections to the mass media that promote the lie.

The rest of us have to live with the political and economic consequences of what Robert Parry calls "Reagan's 30-Year Time Bombs."